Experimental Filmmaker Takes Over Miami's Legion Park

We don't know what will surprise you more -- the dancing, flickering images bouncing off the oak trees at Legion Park or the fact that there are actually people in a Miami-Dade park. This Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m., experimental film lovers and curious passersby will swarm the park for Dinorah de Jesús Rodríguez's "Elusive Landscape," a site-specific film installation projected onto foliage. Sound designer Ricardo Lastre will provide a soundscape of ambient noise.

But does Miami have an appetite for abstract cinema? Rodríguez believes Miami's "audience that will purposely seek out experimental film is very limited. But the audience that can be surprised by it in the street is everywhere."

"Elusive Landscape" recently took over the Tequesta mounds and dark trails of Arch Creek Park. And after turning Legion Park into a theater of trees this Saturday, Rodríguez will take her projectors to E.G. Sewell Park, where, according to the artist, the beauty of royal palms and poinciana trees meets the grotesqueness of discarded Santería offerings.

New Times: Describe "Elusive Landscape."

Dinorah de Jesús Rodríguez: This project is a celebration of Miami's

neighborhoods, greenspaces, and eco-systems, and yes, our extreme

weather, complete with humidity and bugs. The project is a series of

16mm film installations at five separate outdoor locations over the

course of five months.  

Is there an audience for experimental film in Miami?  

I think it is a very new concept here, but fortunately we have enough

transplants from other cities who know what experimental film is.  I

think with the upcoming expansion of the Cinematheque in Miami Beach,

the opening of the new Cinematheque in the Gables, and the development

of yet a third alternative film venue, O Cinema. The South

Florida community is about to be bombarded by this very expansive genre

in a big way.  And I think our audiences are ready for this, just like

they were ready for the visual art explosion that Art Basel brought our

way. It may take a little time for people to realize that this type of

work is already happening here, and for audiences to wholeheartedly

support it, but I believe that Miami is ready for this type of art, and

it will eventually take off.

Do you only work with film?

No.  I work primarily in film, mainly because no other discipline allows

me to play with the interface between visual art and cinema so well. I

stick mainly to 16mm because, over time, I have acquired the equipment

for this format (as opposed to the equipment for working in 35mm which

is prohibitively expensive).  I love the physicality and chemical

properties of film, and I try to exploit and push these as much as

possible in my work.  

What filmmakers inspire you?

I became an experimental filmmaker upon seeing the works of Maya Deren,

so it probably all begins there.  Stan Brakhage, of course, is a major

influence, as is Len Lye, though it's possible that many people in Miami

have no idea who they are.  Nam June Paik - what can I say?  I think he

may well have been my favorite artist of all time.  Paul Sharits with

his multiple projections, and artists like Bruce Conner and Chick

Strand, who worked a lot with found footage and really blurred the line

between documentary and abstraction.  Among more contemporary artists, I

am blown away by Pipilotti Rist and really love the work of Lorna

Simpson.

You worked with Trinh T. Minh-ha. What was that experience like? 

Minh-ha has been a very important mentor in my career, as I

admire her

tremendously both as a theorist and as a filmmaker. The most powerful

influences Minh-ha has had on my work have been the understanding of

time as a visual element - to really be able to feel the way pacing

manipulates an audience and drives the soul of the film - and the

concept of deconstruction of entrenched cinematic formulas by way of

such simple gestures as separating image from sound, or by joining sound

and images that "don't belong together."

Miami).